Saving our children

LAHORE: This is in response to Hammad Asif’s column titled ‘Spare the child’, published in this newspaper on June 14th. The writer has brought to light a very important issue of corporal punishment to children that has an emotional effect that lingers longer than the bruises on their bodies.

Just as Asif points out, many parents in Asia believe that beating their children is the only way they can be disciplined. “The problem is we are a society that believes that sparing the rod will only spoil the child,” writes Asif.

You can enter any house in the country or speak to any adult, they will tell you their childhood stories of trying to dodge the ‘chappal’ thrown at them by their parents, often in a light-hearted manner for humour. But with every giggle or laughter they dismiss the issue at hand making it less serious and less significance to talk about.

These adults become teachers and practise the same on the premises of their schools and at their homes with their own children, imbuing “violence in children to be passed down over generations.”